• by Masha Geller , May 30, 2002

I asked for it. Following yesterday’s Minute, my inbox is flooded with responses from readers eager to vent on the subject of Spam. Everybody has an opinion and it’s a treat to read through. Here’s are some gems.

Grey Worldwide’s Terry O'Hanlon wrote, “One key difference between unsolicited marketing communications via email is that many users pay for the time they're connected to their ISP, meaning there's a definable cost to them for receiving each email. All other unsolicited marketing communications are free to the recipient.

Bob Desmond, of Desmond & Associates Inc., wrote, “I, for one, am tired of all the hoopla about spam and what it means in our industry. I feel that we can work to alleviate the unfair advantage of spam and UCE by continuing to keep the abuse in the public’s eye and to monitor activities of the major offenders who feel they can do as they please without regard to customer complaints and industry watch guards. Suing everyone for something as minor as causal spamming will only help put money into the lawyers’ pockets and complicate something that can be dealt with by continual education of the public and advertising industry participants.”

Conversely, Larry Davis wrote, “SPAM is an illegal interference, which would seem to be the domain of government and not marketing.”

Tim Hawkes added, “I think the spam problem could only get worse as broadband allows for larger file, e.g. DHTML & Flash, emails to be mailed. I think we are in for wider-spread damage in the form of server crashes and network down times.”

Feel like continuing the conversation? Our Online Spin writers have graciously let me hijack their discussion board for a few days, so please join me there and let me know what you think.